Enhancements to IBM’s Smarter Storage line of Flash, disk and tape systems give clients faster access to business critical information and Big Data insights. New High Performance Computing solutions bring HPC capabilities to mainstream servers to help more clients crunch their ever-mounting volumes of data faster.

New capabilities added to the IBM PureSystems family expert integrated systems are designed to help clients reduce the security risks often faced when deploying cloud solutions, as well as enable quick recovery and restoration after disasters. A new mobile solution based on IBM Worklight server on PureSystems for both Power and x86 was created to accelerate clients’ access to millions of mobile users by allowing mobile applications to be deployed in as little as 30 minutes.

“Cloud computing and Big Data analytics are playing key roles in helping organizations lower operating expenses, improve efficiencies, and increase productivity,” said Tom Rosamilia, senior vice president, IBM Systems & Technology Group. “But they’re also enabling greater and faster access to business insights, which is fundamentally transforming the ways in which organizations, public and private, are interacting with, learning from, and supporting their customers.”

Smarter Storage for New Era of Computing

In addition to rolling out its new IBM FlashSystem family of all-Flash appliances today, the company announced enhancements to its storage portfolio that will help more clients achieve faster and continuous access to business-critical information. For example, IBM added support for 4TB drives to its Storwize V7000 and XIV advanced storage systems for 33 percent more capacity in the same space, and new capabilities to XIV that let clients send large volumes of data between systems through the cloud without performance degradation.

IBM also enhanced its Easy Tier technology, which automatically moves data to the most effective storage tier in a storage system for faster performance and greater efficiency. The new Easy Tier Server function helps boost performance even further by caching the “hottest,” most-frequently accessed data to the EXP30 Ultra SSD I/O Drawer on IBM Power Systems. When these servers are used in conjunction with the IBM DS8870 Storage System, the new Easy Tier Server capabilities can help boost storage performance by up to five times.

Other updates to the storage line include:

· IBM Linear Tape File System Enterprise Edition is based on LTFS Library Edition, but lets clients use tape storage as a separate tier for greater management and access. The system is a cost-effective and easy-to-deploy data solution that’s ideal for Web 2.0 applications. It is integrated with the IBM GPFS file system and can help lower storage and archive costs up to 90 percent¹.

· IBM FlashSystem series was released today. Announced in April, the series of all-Flash appliances has been enhanced to deliver less than 1/10 the cost per transaction while using 4 percent of the energy and 2 percent of the space compared to hybrid disk and flash systems.

Tivoli Storage Manager Dashboard visualizes thousands of data points

IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) Operations Center provides a new and intuitive management dashboard that lets clients manage more backups with less complexity. The health of data protection environments can be assessed at a glance, combining thousands of data points into an intuitive dashboard screen. Based on a combination of analytics, workflow automation and advanced visualization, the new software also offers, improved scalability with consolidated back up and recovery capabilities that manage thousands of backups at multiple sites. It also has the ability to monitor systems with any browser-enabled device. In addition, to help find and resolve backup issues faster, a centralized view of backup problems can be seen across multiple TSM servers. Essential problem information is also highlighted, eliminating diagnostic steps. By showing alerts in context, users can better understand the impact on service levels and data loss to take appropriate action.

Five packaged solutions for the healthcare and retail industries represent the latest in a series of new industry-themed solutions that combine IBM Power Systems with specialized software to meet big data and analytics needs unique to specific industries. For healthcare, the new solutions are designed to improve patient care and experience, reduce healthcare costs and maximize health resource utilization; while the retail solution is geared toward helping retailers provide customers with more personalized shopping experiences.

Three additional solutions provide organizations in any industry sector with advanced computing capabilities including predictive analytics, scoring and optimization techniques, as well as turnkey cloud offerings that support "pay-per-use" business models or fit-for-purpose private cloud infrastructures. Built on Power Systems' open platform for choice, both cloud solutions manage industry-standard Linux, AIX and IBM i operating system environments.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the IBM i operating system, IBM introduced the IBM i 25th Anniversary Edition. Available on either a Power 720 or Power 740 server, this special solution edition includes a no-charge IBM i 7.1 processor license and three service vouchers.

Technical Computing’s New Application-Ready Solutions

New entry-level technical computing solutions announced today integrate the company’s Platform Computing software directly on IBM Power Systems, Flex Systems, System x, iDataPlex, and IBM Storage Systems. These IBM Application Ready Solutions for Technical Computing address the challenges clients face with the rise of Big Data, computationally intensive workloads and cloud computing. The Application Ready Solutions, designed for the automotive, aerospace, oil and gas, and life sciences industries, are expertly tuned by IBM and its partners and designed to get clients up and running fast.

The solutions come pre-integrated with Platform Computing workload management software, IBM Flex System or IBM System x servers, IBM System Storage and industry leading applications. As a result, entry-level and midrange clients can more easily deploy and manage high-performance clusters, grids, and remote 3D visualization clouds.

PureFlex, Cloud, and Big Data

As part of today's announcement, IBM is adding new solutions for cloud, mobile, social and analytics that will build on the strong global momentum of PureSystems. Since its introduction a year ago, more than 4,000 PureSystems have shipped to organizations in more than 90 countries, with wide adoption in key growth markets and by Managed Service Providers (MSPs) who are building cloud datacenters with PureFlex at their core.

The new offerings include:

· IBM PureFlex Solution for Cloud Backup and Recovery - This new solution incorporates specialized patterns based on Tivoli Storage Manager, Microsoft Hyper-V and the SAP Business Suite to help clients reduce the security risks they often face when deploying cloud solutions. In the event of a site disaster, data can be restored to operating status in minutes and most applications will be able to recover to operation in minutes;

· The IBM Mobile Application Platform Pattern - A mobile solution based on IBM Worklight server on PureSystems for both Power and x86 that can accelerate client access to millions of mobile users by allowing new mobile solutions to be deployed in as little as 30-40 minutes;

· IBM Connections Pattern that will allow clients to deploy their social business platform on IBM PureSystems.

System Networking

Along with the slew of system enhancement news, IBM also announced the IBM SAN96B-5 96-port, a 16Gbps Gen 5 Fibre Channel Storage Area Networking (FC SAN) switch with Fabric Vision technology. The new switch enables faster insights by doubling the data throughput as compared to previous generation SANs. With the new switch clients can maximize up-time, optimize data performance and unify SAN management through innovative Fabric Vision diagnostic, monitoring and management technology.

Financing

IBM Global Financing offers credit-qualified clients interest-free financing when they acquire their Power and Storage systems. Also, our new mobile financing app for IBM Business Partners can help facilitate closing more business with their clients – from anywhere at any time.

About IBM

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1. Based on a list price comparison of a 1PB TS3500 tape library plus 1 GPFS license and 1 LTFS EE license compared to a DS5100; also includes annual maintenance.